Monthly Archives: March 2018

When I was in college for my second degree in nutrition, an incident in my Anatomy & Physiology class really turned me off to meat for a while…a little over 4 years to be exact. In fact, it wasn’t until I was pregnant with my first child that I started to eat meat again. But when I was vegetarian, I relied a lot on soy products with little variety in my diet and it was then that I learned the importance of balance in the diet and how it’s never good to eat too much of a good thing-including the super healthy stuff. These days, I have way more variety in my diet and eat chicken, turkey and fish but still like to prepare meatless dinners for my family at least 1-2 times per week with recipes that have a creative vegetarian twist on some common meat dishes like these MEATLESS MUSHROOM MEATBALLS! Ahh these meatballs are so delicious, easy to make and gluten-free. Perfect for getting little helpers involved, my kids love mixing the ingredients and making the balls and I don’t have to worry about them touching raw meat. Recipe adapted from one that I found on allrecipes.com a few years ago and have been making ever since. Thanks to mushrooms, these meatballs have a great texture and get beautifully browned. I usually pair them with my fav Banza chickpea pasta which has 2x the protein and 4x the fiber of traditional pasta, making this dish nutritionally complete and satisfying! and serve with a side salad.

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh crimini mushrooms, finely chopped

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1/2 cup onion, finely chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup gluten-free quick-cooking oats

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1/2 cup gluten-free breadcrumbs

dash of salt and black pepper

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, packed

2 eggs, whisked

4 cups pasta sauce

olive oil cooking spray (for parchment paper)

**if you do not have a gluten intolerance, you can use whole wheat breadcrumbs and oats that do not specify “gluten-free” on the packaging.

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms to the hot oil, sprinkle with salt, and cook and stir until liquid from mushrooms has evaporated. Stir butter into mushrooms, reduce heat to medium, and cook and stir mushrooms until golden brown, about 5 minutes.

Stir onion into mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until onion is translucent, 5 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and stir garlic into mushroom mixture until fragrant, about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl.

Mix oats into mushroom mixture until thoroughly combined. Gently stir in parmesan cheese. Add bread crumbs, parsley, and eggs. Then add in a dash of salt, pepper and oregano.

Mix together with a fork until crumbly. Mixture should hold together when pressed.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours. For best flavor and texture, refrigerate overnight.

Form mixture into small meatballs using a 2-tablespoon scoop. Roll meatballs lightly between your hands until smooth, if desired; arrange meatballs on prepared baking sheet.

Bake in the preheated oven until meatballs are lightly golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes, turning once (turn very carefully as meatballs may stick a bit to parchment paper).

Bring pasta sauce to a boil in a large saucepan; reduce heat to low. Gently stir meatballs into sauce until coated. Simmer meatballs in sauce for about 15 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl over pasta of choice and enjoy.

While making healthy meals for my family is important, I also love to use my creativity to make food fun and colorful. Instead of encouraging my kids to eat a food because it’s “healthy”, I discuss with them the importance of why it’s healthy and how the nutrients could benefit their bodies. After much trial and error with food creations, I’ve found that children are more likely to try a new food that has a cool name attached to it or is presented in a fun way (like these cute flower fruit/veggie shapes).

With that said, I’m constantly thinking of ways to get my kids to try new foods or how to re-introduce an old favorite in a new and creative way- all while doing my best to use up ingredients that I already have on hand. yesterday, I was cleaning out my pantry and realized that I have SO much cereal and started to think of “out of the box” ways to use it for a fun weekend breakfast and came up with this super delicious n’ easy CRUNCHY COCONUT FRENCH TOAST uses only 6 ingredients with no added sugar. 👅🍞🍽! Paired here with 🍓+🍌 FLOWER with cucumber STEMS and a little drizzle of 100% pure maple syrup (or you can cut this toast into dippers and serve with a yogurt-based dip or syrup on the side! This recipe is gluten-free and perfect for getting little helpers involved in the kitchen! My kids loved dipping the eggy bread into the crispy mix!👩🏻‍🍳👦🏻👦🏻

True story: I was planning to take a break from social media this weekend (just to unplug for a bit) but I was so excited about this recipe that I couldn’t wait to share it with you and hopefully inspire your Sunday breakfast! have a MAGICAL weekend! ☀️🌈🦄

Ingredients:

4 slices gluten-free bread (or else you can use regular whole grain bread if you do not have an intolerance/allergy to gluten)

Happy Thursday! 👋🏼 so I FINALLY made cauliflower pizza 🍕🍕with a good end result! 💃🏻The first time I made it, it was like totally mush but I was so proud of this cauliflower crust the 2nd time around and my husband agrees that it’s wayyy better than store-bought! And seriously very easy. I realized that the reason it was so mushy the first time was because I didn’t squeeze out the excess liquid from the cauli before mixing with other ingredients 🤦🏻‍♀️. NOW I know better and happy to share my recipe! I love cauliflower pizza because it’s a great way to top veggies on top of veggies! What’s better than that?!

I topped the crust off with Rao’s homemade pizza sauce and fresh baby spinach 🍃served with Whole Foods 365 brand carrot zoodles, which by the way are such a fun way to serve carrots for kids! 🥕🥕 Try them! You’ll find a bunch of cauliflower crust recipes online so this is just what worked for me. Hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

12-oz bag of fresh cauliflower florets

3/4 cup mozzarella cheese

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

1 egg, whisked

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

pinch of salt and black pepper (optional)

Toppings: any veggies you want!

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Using a steamer basket, steam the cauliflower florets until fork tender and drain well. Allow to cool.

Place cooled florets on a cutting board and chop well.

Important* Squeeze out excess liquid using paper towel or a cheesecloth.

In a bowl, combine the cauliflower with the mozzarella, Parmesan, oregano, salt, garlic powder and egg. Transfer to the center of the baking sheet and spread into a circle, resembling a pizza crust. Bake for 15 minutes (Note: you can also check it at 10 minutes, the crust is ready when the top is golden brown, which for me was 15 minutes).

Add a layer of sauce and desired veggie toppings and bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until veggies on the top are softened.

WAFFLES! Gosh, my family truly loves waffles and these gluten-free oat waffles are a weekly request (I usually make a batch at least twice per week!). The best part is that they are made solely with oats! Well, oat flour that is, which is basically oats ground up to a super fine flour consistency. In fact, I make a batch of oat flour weekly in my Vitamix and it take less than a minute to grind up! These waffles are rich in fiber, protein and other nutrients-making them a filling and nutritious breakfast for my little guys. Plus, there is no added sugar! and if you ask me, Mickey never looked so good 🙂 We switch off between our belgian waffle maker and this cute Mickey one and the kids gobble them up either way.

my 5-year old loves his waffles with a few mini chocolate chips and I recently bought cocoa nibs and wondering why I didn’t buy them sooner! Have you ever tried these gems? Cocoa nibs are basically a raw, pure form of chocolate that hasn’t had any sugar added to it. So they have a chocolatey flavor but lack sweetness. Although my boys aren’t so keen on these nibs, they have become my favorite addition to some foods and love that that it contains 0g of sugar! They add a nice flavor and crunch to foods like these waffles and make a healthy addition (in moderation) to smoothie bowls, trail mixes or even in cooking and baking!

Hope you enjoy this waffle recipe below as much as we do!

Ingredients

1 ½ cups gluten-free oat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

¾ cup room temperature milk of choice

3 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted or coconut oil

2 large eggs, separated

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the oat flour, baking powder and salt.

Separate eggs and add yolks to one mixing bowl and whites to another.

Add the milk, melted coconut oil or butter, applesauce and vanilla extract to the yolks. (If your coconut oil solidifies on contact with cold ingredients, gently heat the wet mixture in the microwave in ten seconds intervals, until it melts again.)

Beat the whites on high speed until stiff peaks are formed, about 1 minute.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients (except for the egg whites). Whisk until just combined.

Fold in the whites, stirring until whites are completely blended in. Batter should be light and fluffy. Let the batter sit for about 5 minutes.

Set waffle maker to medium-high (but all waffle makers are different, this Mickey waffle maker has no setting but comes out perfect each time! so always check and adjust the heat as needed.

Once 10 minutes is up, give the batter one more swirl with your spoon. Pour batter onto the heated waffle iron, enough to cover the center and most of the central surface area, and close the lid. Once the waffle is deeply golden and crisp, transfer it to a cooling rack or baking sheet. Don’t stack your waffles on top of each other, or they’ll lose crispness. If desired, keep your waffles warm by placing them in a 200 degree oven until you’re ready to serve.

Breakfast for dinner is my go-to meal and always a pleaser for my kids and husband. 😋 during the week, my breakfast is almost always a smoothie, so having a breakfast meal like this for dinner is so satisfying! 🍳Plus my kids LOVE breakfast food too making it a mom win every time! 💃🏻💃🏻You’re looking at my favorite breakfast combo- eggs + avocado on @canyonglutenfree 7-grain bread with a side of fresh berries. I’ve tried many #glutenfree breads and this is by far my favorite. And…this is the BEST sunny side up egg I’ve ever made (just watched a quick @marthastewart tutorial 😉).

Let’s talk about EGGS for a minute-did you know that one egg contains 70 calories, 6 grams of high-quality protein and 14 essential nutrients including choline and Vitamin D! Since eggs are cost effective and versatile, they are an excellent way to help meet nutrient needs for kids and adults! And for you parents with kids that refuse to eat eggs, try introducing them in different ways! It wasn’t until Ethan was 2 1/2 that he finally gave eggs a try and started eating the hard boiled whites and now eats scrambled eggs with ketchup. Now with Austin being 2, although he still refuses eggs, I mashed banana with them to make simple flourless banana pancakes! How do you do breakfast?

It’s National Nutrition Month! and this year’s theme is “Go Further with Food.” What I love about this theme is that it has many different meanings outside of just making healthy food choices. To me, going further with food means making meals fun and creative, experimenting with different ingredients especially those my kids havent tried, storing food properly to reduce waste and using food as a way to help prevent disease and illness. .

This morning, I created this strawberry banana almond smoothie and it’s definitely on my list of favorites! It’s gluten-free, vegan and dairy-free! I’ll admit my kids are still hesitant to try smoothies but I always offer it and let them decide on whether or not they want to try it. Here are the details on this smoothie: .

Not only is almond flour great in baking but it also adds some protein and healthy fats to smoothies! In an effort to peak the interest of my kids, I topped it off with a strawberry flower, banana star + sprinkled with my homemade granola (recipe on my blog!) it was SO goooood!! The entire smoothie provides 10 grams of plant based protein! 🙌.

About Me

Hello! My name is Samina and I’m Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist from NYC. I use my love for cooking and nutrition expertise to create fun, healthy and delicious dishes for my family (often using my kids as taste testers) and I’m here to share it all with you!